Smarthome

The first crop of smart home gadgets from a few years ago weren’t actually very smart, but times have changed, and there’s now plenty of good reasons to upgrade your hoover, microwave, and even your sound system, with a bit of AI-enhanced smarts. Read More >>

In less than a week’s time Google will be holding court in New York to reveal some less-than-mysterious new hardware offerings. Those Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL smartphones might have been thoroughly leaked ahead of next week’s gathering, but what other surprises has Google managed to keep under wraps? Read More >>

Along with anything related to smart speakers and voice assistant integration, one of the biggest gold rushes in tech is the rapidly expanding smarthome market. And with companies both new and old trying to find a way in, there’s a lot of a confusion among consumer about which brands are legit. Read More >>

Internet-connected devices are known for having their fair share of security issues — especially when it comes to cameras. But here’s a new one: the BBC reported this week that a smart home security camera started sending video clips to the wrong person. Read More >>

Amazon announced Wednesday that it will try to pitch the general public on its dystopian future by launching interactive showrooms in model homes across the USA to show off its full line of smart home products. Read More >>

Nest recently released a new ad, and let me tell you: there are some issues with the content. So you see this teenage girl in a prom dress ring a Nest doorbell, and a teen couple walk out the front door. The two girls walk to a car, as a low robotic voice beckons the boy and proceeds to give him a fatherly speech about being a gentleman. Turns out, the voice is actually coming from the doorbell and belongs to his doctor dad who is at work at a hospital. Again, there are some issues. Read More >>

E-retail giant Amazon has declined to feature any future products from Google’s line of smart home products, Nest, and as a result, Nest won’t be restocking those items currently listed on the site once they sell out. Read More >>

Picture this: you live in the future. Your gadgets are voice-controlled. You’re lazy, so you don’t want to walk over to a smart speaker to bark your commands. But one of the world’s largest electronics companies has saved you from that slightly inconvenient fate by installing microphones in everything you own. Read More >>

Before the idea of a ‘smart home’ came long, people had to actually walk over to a switch to turn lights on and off—it was barbaric. Now you can illuminate your entire house with just a few taps on a smartphone app, but Philips wants to make life even easier than that with a new motion sensor that automatically turns its Hue lights on and off for you. Read More >>

A lot of devices rely solely on Bluetooth for connectivity, but they always require another device to provide them with a link to the internet. That often means you need to be right there with it — but not for much longer, because the low-power standard is getting its own gateway to the internet. Read More >>

The hundreds of different smart home platforms premiering at CES 2016 is a perfect summation of that technology: it’s kind of a mess right now. But with its new SR20 Smart Home Router, TP-Link might have just helped to streamline the smart home and make all the connected devices in your home finally play nicely together Read More >>

One of the most effective ways to protect your home while you’re traveling is to simply make it look like you’re not actually away. But instead of wrangling timers, or having the neighbours stop by, these new BeON smart bulbs will automatically learn your daily routines and keep turning lights on and off in your absence. Read More >>

Smart home devices are seeping into our lives. But as the number of remotely adjustable aspects of home life grows, keeping track of all the apps that control everything could become a bit of headache. That's a fact which doesn’t really mix with the smart home philosophy of allowing you to be as lazy as possible. Read More >>